We wonder whether the commission will have that kind of success again. This time around, they’re taking on another love-it-or-hate-it institution that first hit the scene several decades ago: Governor Jerry Brown. They’re steamed that Brown’s budget proposal for the 2012-13 fiscal year includes eliminating the California Commission on the Status of Women, one of several such groups up for cuts in Brown’s effort to, as he says, “make government more efficient.”

Last year, Brown cut state funding for the commission, formed in 1965, from $465,000 to $265,000, saying, “While the statutory goals of the commission are worthy, I continue to believe there are other formal and informal venues for policy development and advocacy that do not require general fund expenditures.”

This year, he’s proposing to eliminate the group entirely, which the local commission says will save two cents per woman in California – and represents “an insignificant .0002 percent of the $137 billion state budget.” They’re backing a resolution calling on Brown to reinstate funding.

Emily Murase, director of the city’s Department on the Status of Women, said the elimination of the state version comes as state programs relied upon by poor women, including CalWorks and childcare programs, are on the chopping block. “At precisely the time when women most need a voice at the table, most need advocates, I just don’t see how it makes any sense at all,” she said.

The city’s department isn’t under any such threat – other than being ordered by the mayor to find five percent in cuts like all other city departments. Murase’s department has an annual budget of $3.5 million, 80 percent of which goes to grants for organizations that fight violence against women.

“I would like to work myself out of a job,” Murase said. “I would like to not have to fund agencies to deal with domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. If we could address those subjects in fundamental ways, we wouldn’t need a department, but they continue to be major issues.”

Fun fact: Guess which California governor established the California Commission on the Status of Women? Pat Brown, Jerry’s dad.